It's treason, with a capital 'T'

WikiLeaks. It sounds like a new video game – aimed at prepubescent males.

It sounds like a rip-off of Wikipedia – an Internet, do it yourself, history of everything, but without verification.

WikiLeaks isn't any of that. It's the intentional release online of hundreds of thousands of highly classified government and military documents.

The name is a play on words – but it's neither a game nor a joke.

The release of those secret documents has worldwide security ramifications. Government informants are in danger, sources of information are lost, the enemy knows many of our plans and intentions and diplomats have seen their most private comments and assessments splashed across front pages.

While some regard the document dumps as merely spitting in the eye of the United States government, diplomacy and the military, what Julian Assange has done through his now notorious website is betray the United States, our State Department, military and our allies across the world.

The most recent documents posted contained personal comments among world leaders about each other, many of which were catty and personally demeaning. Others revealed information and contacts between diplomats never intended to be public. Some were innocuous; others were critical.

What WikiLeaks and Julian Assange have done is treason, and that also applies to American Pfc. Bradley Manning who stole documents and provided them to Assange. He clearly sold out the military, our country and our allies.

To the hate-government crowd, blowing the whistle on such contacts and correspondence is an anti-war, anti-American game. There's no concern that such revelations put sources on guard and fearful of future dealing with the U.S. or our allies. It also puts them in danger for their lives and certainly eliminates them as future information providers.

Why would they ever trust us again? Why, indeed.

Unfortunately, Assange and his compatriots have breached the line of confidence governments need with sources, but they don't care.

Fueled with chutzpah, he does something he knows is wrong because he wants to – because he can. He's a self-righteous, self-important, dangerous man.

What's puzzling is the virtual silence from the administration. Yes, Attorney General Eric Holder says there are "real consequences" for such actions but he didn't specify when, what or how.

As for the president – he's so far removed from all the international consternation, that he's silent.

But the message to our enemies is that we're powerless to shut this guy down.

How's that for the most powerful nation on earth?!?

We have the satellites and other technology to do spying that Assange could only dream of and yet, over a period of nearly 10 months – nothing.

The technology exists to spam it out of existence. We don't have to wait for foreign countries to do it. We don't have to wait to find out if Assange is "hiding" in England to avoid two rape charges against him in Sweden.

We don't have to wait for Australia to do something about one of its citizens who's intent on bringing down the West – if not by security breaches then by international, tit-for-tat ridicule.

Assange isn't stopping. Now that he's had three document dumps of confidential international intelligence documents, he's threatening to release classified/private information from a major bank. Early reports said it would be CitiCorp. Now we hear it'll be Bank of America.

I've heard they're "lawyering up" – sounds like a smart move.

Unfortunately, the inaction by this administration against WikiLeaks and against Assange personally for his responsibility in the release of these hundreds of thousands of secret documents reveals a personal presidential weakness.

Obama makes it clear he wants to lower the moral authority of this country and demean our role as a world leader.

By delay and inaction against WikiLeaks, the administration presents the United States as what they apparently want it to be: a paper tiger.

Let's face it, if Obama wanted to stop WikiLeaks, he could. We have the technology and the manpower but not the spine.

It's reported that Assange has received death threats, which sounds as though some people in the real world understand what's going on. Now, not only must he spend most of his time evading the law, he has to lay low.

Good.

This isn't a game, and Assange isn't God, deciding what laws to obey and those he won't. He has no conscience and has no compunction about receiving classified documents and posting them online. In fact, he considers himself above the law – any law, from anywhere.

So far, his audacity is working, but what Assange does is a massive, security breach, the consequences of which he ignores.

It's treason, pure and simple, the betrayal of one's country to an enemy. He's betrayed the United States, his country, our allies and the security of the free world, aiding our enemies, made worse because we're at war.

Charge him, try him, find him guilty and stand him against the wall – without a blindfold. Short and sweet.

We've got to show some guts and stop being intimidated my international slime and homegrown cowardice and sleaze.

The world will be a better place, and justice will be done.

The traditional punishment is death by firing squad.

If they need someone to pull the trigger, I'm available.